Fifty Ukrainian bankers learn about housing finance in Philly

PHILADELPHIA - After 75 years of the government ownership of housing, Ukrainians can now be homeowners. To help Ukrainians turn dreams into reality, 50 Ukrainian bankers and banking faculty learned about housing finance from an innovative Philadelphia program, the Delaware Valley Mortgage Plan on April 25 at an event hosted by Mellon PSFS.

According to Anne Czajka, home ownership counselor with Philadelphia's New Kensington Community Development Corp., the Ukrainian delegation was on a three-week study tour of New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development to learn about U.S. banking by visiting banks and financial, institutions and meeting with representatives.

The Delaware Valley Mortgage Plan is a 22-year-old program that has invested $635 million in mortgages to 25,000 lower-income, mostly first-generation, homebuyers.

Ms. Czajka noted, "After 80 years of communism, everyone in Ukraine could be classified as a first-time home buyer - mortgage lending and retail financial services are completely new in Ukraine."

The group also visited the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Stock Exchange. Architect Ollie Cherniahivsky, who was consultant to the World Bank on issues of housing and real estate development in Ukraine, met with the group. They also visited Core States Bank, where they made presentations to the international business department.

According to Mortgage Plan's executive director, Mary Francis Davis, "Almost everyone in Ukraine is a first-generation homebuyer and many are low income, so I think our experience in the Delaware Valley Mortgage Plan is relevant. I think homeownership counseling, too, is very important [to teach people how to quality for a mortgage and how to adapt to the responsibilities of home ownership.]"

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, July 20, 1997, No. 29, Vol. LXV

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